Prince Harry’s article in The Mail on Sunday was ‘defamatory’, judge says

Parts of the article in mail on sunday Prince Harry’s legal action against the British government’s Home Office was slanderous, a London High Court judge has said.

The Duke of Sussex filed a lawsuit in February against the newspaper’s publisher, Associated Newspapers Limited, after his staff said he had suffered “serious damage to his reputation and serious damage, embarrassment and anguish which continues”. On Friday, a judge ruled that parts of the article were indeed defamatory.

According to ITV, the judge said, “It is possible to ‘misrepresent’ the facts without misleading, but the claim made in the article was that it was intended to mislead the public.” The judge concluded, “This provides the necessary element to convert defamatory meanings into common law.”

In his case against the government, Prince Harry is seeking a court hearing to force the government to provide official security for him and his family, including his two children with wife Meghan Markle. The couple indicated they would pay a security fee, but wanted to protect her through the Home Office. His lawyers say he and his family cannot return to their homeland because it is too dangerous.

Markle successfully sued Associated Newspapers for publishing a handwritten letter to his father, Thomas Markle, about their strained relationship during the royal wedding. For this, he received nominal damages of £1, in addition to receiving an undisclosed amount that he donated to charity.